Joel James carries bat in thrilling win

by Harry Chapman

After a shocking display from the Northchurch 2nd XI last week that didn't even warrant a match report, The Church were looking for a strong performance to restore confidence for the rest of the season.

The day didn’t get off to the start skipper Harry Chapman was hoping for as he lost his first toss of the season and was stuck into bat. This wasn’t what the captain wanted after the events of the week before but proved to be a good exercise to get the monkey off the 2nd XI’s back.

Opening the batting was Joel James and Jack Randall and this partnership would prove to be the key partnership of the innings.
Joel being his normal solid self looked to punish any width given to him and Randall, being treated to some early short pitched bowling, deservedly put it to the boundary.

It wasn’t until the 17th over that Redbourn would make their first break through, getting the fluent Randall out shortly after he got to his first 50 of the season - caught behind off the bowling of Bradley. The opening pair put on an impressive 100 partnership in quick time to set the platform for the rest of the team to come in and play freely.

In at three was Mike James who fell five overs later for 12, caught off the bowling of spinner Darvell. This brought the return of Ryan “the better brother” Smart to the crease after two weeks away. Smart couldn’t find his normal rhythm and struggled to get any sort of timing on a pitch that looked a belter. 32 balls later he was back in the pavilion - caught off the bowling of the second Redbourn spinner Oriel for a disappointing nine.

Ronak Patel was next in, and feeling the pressure of an on looking girlfriend, he set about his work in normal Patel style - scoring his opening runs with a four. However, his shot making was cut short when a mix up with Joel left him stranded half way down the track with no chance of getting back.

At six was Jack Fantham and it was this partnership with Joel that started to take the scoreboard up to 200 with both batsmen running hard and picking up the odd boundary.

Joel James reached his first 50 of the season during this partnership, which brought the biggest cheer of the day as his teammates appreciated all the hard work he’d put in to put Northchurch in a more positive position.

Fantham was next to fall, scoring a run a ball 32 as he was caught on the boundary trying to clear the ropes in order to get Northchurch to the final batting point.

Skipper Harry Chapman was in at seven and with only 1.2 overs left to set a total on a brilliant Northchurch wicket, the message he had for Joel was clear, run everything.

This was exactly what they did - taking the last over for 17 runs, including Chapman running a rare three and also hitting the last ball of the innings into the tennis courts for a big six.

Northchurch finished their innings on 231 for 5 and were led off the field by Joel James who carried his bat from ball one to make a very handy 72. Joel batting the way he did allowed others to play their natural game and it was brilliant to see him play the exact role planned out for him in the pre-season.

At tea Northchurch felt they were still 20/30 below par so knew even defending such a big score would be a tough ask. David Vila and Ben Pyne opened the bowling but their first spells were dealt with by the Redbourn openers for no loss.

Harry Bennie and Sunni Durani came on first change with the score 24-0 off 10 and they looked to make inroads into a decent looking batting side. Bennie bowling his awkward left arm over caused a few problems for both openers, but again his first spell was seen off with no loss.

The introduction of Jack Randall brought a change in momentum as in his second over he brought the first wicket of the innings as the Redbourn captain chipped a ball straight to Chapman for a watchful 28.

With the score 85-1 off 23 overs it looked as though Northchurch would comfortably restrict Redbourn in order to win the game, but the second Redbourn opener had different ideas. He took a liking to subpar bowling from Chapman, as he and Jackson ticked the score board over to get the rate back into Redbourn’s hands. Regularly hitting boundaries and running well they put on a partnership worth 52 before number three (Jackson) was out LBW to Chapman for 30.

This brought a 10-15 over quiet period where not many chances were created. At the 43rd over Redbourn were 194-3 and looked set to take all 30 points away with them. Pyne, who was brought on from the pavilion end had other ideas and picked up an excellent four wickets in three overs for just 11 runs to turn the game on its head.

One of the wickets to fall was that of Pritchard for a great knock of 104 which left Redbourn 209-7 off 47 overs.

22 off 18 was the equation for Redbourn and they soon made a massive dent in this total as Ben went from unplayable to unwatchable - going for 14 off his 9th over to finish with figures of 4-38.

The penultimate over fell on the shoulders of experienced campaigner Vila and he showed exactly why he’s taken so many wickets with a brilliant over going for just 2 runs, taking the wicket of Berrington for 7 in the process.

In a thrilling finish, Durani bowled the final over. With Redbourn needing just six to win, even the most optimistic Northchurch follower (Ollie Johnson on the top boundary) would have put money on Redbourn being able to knock the runs off.

That was until 'The Silent Assassin', Durani had his say. Two dot balls started the last over and the belief of the players lifted with every ball he bowled. Ball three saw the stumps flying with Durani picking up his first wicket of the match.

The next two balls were dots meaning Redbourn needed a 6 to with the game. Durani, cool as ice, bowled the final ball and managed to pick up Redbourn’s number 11 to seal the game and end a nail biting match between two sides that should be pushing for promotion come the end of the season.

Man of the match - Joel James for a brilliant innings under pressure. Special mention to Ben Pyne for a brilliant spell of death bowling to get Northchurch back in the game.

Next up for the twos is a trip to Offley and Stopsley. Hopefully the skipper has the right postcode this time!